# How many famous suicides can you remember? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 27, 2004, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-famous-suicides-can-you-remember/266280 "2004-09-27T08:10:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-famous-suicides-can-you-remember/266280/41 "2004-09-27T19:58:24Z")
Isao Inokuma, 1959 and 1963 All-Japan champion, 1964 Olympic gold medallist, and 1965 World Open judo champion. His construction company was failing, and he slashed himself to death with a knife. [Three years ago tomorrow, in fact.](http://www.budokwai.org/obituary_inokuma.htm) Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-famous-suicides-can-you-remember/266280/42 "2004-09-27T20:18:46Z")
Jonathan Brandis, actor (“SeaQuest”) Marshall Applegate, the leader of that freaky castrated death cult that thought they’d ride a comet to heaven Phyllis Hyman, singer and actresss Ed Flanders, actor (“St. Elsewhere”) Margaux Hemingway, actress Dennis Crosby & Lindsay Crosby, both actors and sons of Bing Crosby Abbie Hoffman, political activist Mary Jane Gumm, singer/actress, sister of Judy Garland Donny Hathaway, singer Brynn Hartman, actress - after murdering husband Phil Hartman Brian Keith, actor (“Family Affair”) Jerzy Kozinski, author Hugh O’Connor, actor (“The Heat of the Night”) and son of Carroll O’Connor David Rappaport, actor (“L.A. Law”) noted “little person” Dorothy Dandridge, actress/singer Salvador Allende, president of Chile Edwin H. Armstrong, the man who developed FM radio Dana Plato, actress (“Diff’rent Strokes”) Cheyenne Brando, scandal-embroiled daughter of Marlon Tommy Boyce, composer (“The Monkees”) Ray Combs, TV host (“Family Feud”) Frida Kahlo, artist (suspected overdose) Richard Farnsworth, actor (“The Straight Story”) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-famous-suicides-can-you-remember/266280/43 "2004-09-27T21:20:03Z")
The Singing Nun drank poison along with a woman who was suspected of being her lesbian lover. :eek: Cecil did a column on it. I’ll try to dig it up. Dan White, the man who killed Harvey Milks & George Moscone (and got a lighter sentence thanks to the “twinkie defense”) locked himself in his garage with the car running. Marilyn Monroe most likely died of a deliberate overdose. She was found with her hand on the phone, possibly in an effort to call for help after changing her mind. Phil Graham, monumentally-influential publisher of the “Washington Post” and husband of Katherine Graham shot himself. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-famous-suicides-can-you-remember/266280/44 "2004-09-27T21:38:31Z")
Cecil’s column on the Singing Nun: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_078.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_078.html) ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-famous-suicides-can-you-remember/266280/45 "2004-09-27T21:53:10Z")
For the jazz fans: J.J. Johnson, one of the greatest trombonists. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-famous-suicides-can-you-remember/266280/46 "2004-09-28T12:04:06Z")
Auntie Em - took an overdose of sleeping pills then put her head inside a plastic bag. But that’s OK, because she was Christian woman and refused to tell Elmira Gulch what she really thought. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-famous-suicides-can-you-remember/266280/47 "2004-09-28T13:06:51Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The 19 9/11 Hijackers. And I hate mentioning those bastards. I don’t see why there was any need to mention them. They weren’t celebrities who committed suicide, they were suicides who achieved celebrity, and even then “notority” better fits the description. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-famous-suicides-can-you-remember/266280/48 "2004-09-28T13:17:22Z")
Let us not forget Herve Villachez of Fantasy Island. Shot himself (Poorly) in the chest on videotape. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-famous-suicides-can-you-remember/266280/49 "2004-09-29T01:23:08Z")
Violeta Parra, Chilean folk singer–got depressed and shot herself in February 1967. Guy Debord, “revolutionary” and author of _Society of the Spectacle_ --shot himself in November 1994 due to a nerve disorder caused by alcoholism. David Blood, bassist for the Dead Milkmen. Killed himself last March or February; I don’t know how. Pegeen Vail, Peggy Guggenheim’s daughter–took sleeping pills; March 1967. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-famous-suicides-can-you-remember/266280/50 "2004-09-29T03:16:35Z")
Famous suicide - an otherwise obscure person famous only for committing suicide. There was the guy - I don’t think he was ever identified - who commit suicide in a hotel room, leaving the note **“I walk a lonely road”** which inspired the song _Heartbreak Hotel_, otherwise a completely obscure story. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-famous-suicides-can-you-remember/266280/51 "2004-09-29T07:00:38Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > Famous suicide - an otherwise obscure person famous only for committing suicide. There was the guy - I don’t think he was ever identified - who commit suicide in a hotel room, leaving the note **“I walk a lonely road”** which inspired the song _Heartbreak Hotel_, otherwise a completely obscure story. If we’re going to count that one, there’s also 16-year-old Jeremy Wade Delle, who shot himself in front of his Richardson, TX high school English class in 1991. The Dallas suburbs were home to a rash of teen suicides in the 1980s and drew national attention, but Jeremy’s was the first in a few years. A newspaper story about his death inspired Eddie Vedder to write Pearl Jam’s hit “Jeremy”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-famous-suicides-can-you-remember/266280.md?page=2)